The present invention relates to choppers for garden refuse or the like comprising a driven knife disk mounted in a housing on which a charging hopper is mounted so that its axis is at an angle to the cutting plane of the knife, the housing further having an extension running generally radially in relation to the axis of the knife disk and forming the wall of an ejection passage.
An important consideration in the design of choppers of this type is that the knife disk is not to be directly accessible from the outside and more particularly cannot be reached by putting one's hand in through the ejection passage. In some designs of such choppers as so far proposed the ejection passage has had a comparatively large inner cross section remaining constant along its length. To make the disk inaccessible from the outside it is accordingly sufficient to divide up the ejection passage into a number of separate passage sections by having a number of partitions running in its length direction. The manufacturer may then be certain that the user will not be able to put his or her hand into the ejection passage. However there is then a chance of chopped material collecting on the upstream edges of such partitions and after the chopper has been running for a longish time there will be such a build-up of material that the machine will no longer function.
Therefore designs have been attempted omitting the partitions and with such a narrow form of ejection passage that it is not longer possible to reach into it. Such a construction then however involves a risk of blockages.